Articles

Cartilage Information

Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation

Carticel

Carticel® (autologous cultured chondrocytes) is an autologous cellular product indicated for the repair of symptomatic cartilage defects of the femoral condyle (medial, lateral or trochlea), caused by acute or repetitive trauma, in patients who have had an inadequate response to a prior arthroscopic or other surgical repair procedure (e.g., debridement, microfracture, drilling/abrasion arthroplasty, or osteochondral allograft/autograft).

CARTICEL should only be used in conjunction with debridement, placement of a periosteal flap and rehabilitation. The independent contributions of the autologous cultured chondrocytes and other components of the therapy to outcome are unknown.

As with all clinical research studies, participation in the DeNovo ET research study requires that you meet certain criteria determined by the study protocol. The first step in determining your eligibility is to have you answer a short set of questions on this web site. If you meet an initial set of criteria based on your answers to these questions and are interested in participating in the study, you will be asked to provide contact information so that a clinical research study staff member can get in touch with you.

NFL Charities, the charitable foundation of the National Football League owners, has awarded more than $1.6 million in grants to support sports-related medical research at 16 organizations, the NFL announced today. Of these grants, $988,224 will go to studying concussion prevention and treatment. A full list of recipient organizations is below.

"We are proud to support sports-related medical research proposals through NFL Charities Medical Research Grants," said Commissioner Roger Goodell, President of the NFL Charities Board. "These grants will help to address risk factors for football players and all athletes, and make the game safer."

Cartilage Autograft Implantation System (CAIS) for the Repair of Knee Cartilage Through Cartilage Regeneration

The Cartilage Autograft Implantation System (CAIS) is designed as a single surgical treatment of damaged knee cartilage using the subject's own healthy cartilage obtained from a non-weight or low weight-bearing region. CAIS is indicated for the repair of articular cartilage lesions and osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the knee through cartilage regeneration.

In this study we will examine patients who have undergone unilateral ACL reconstruction surgery to determine which structural and functional characteristics of the knee two years post reconstruction surgery, aspects of the original injury and repair, and patient characteristics are risk factors for osteoarthritis after ACL reconstruction surgery.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of modifiable risk factors on patient-reported quality of life, physical activity levels, and risk of early osteoarthritis following revision anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction.

The investigators hypothesize that modifiable variables exist at the time of revision ACL reconstruction (e.g., cause of failure, current graft source and type, surgical exposure, and femoral and tibial tunnel position) which will be predictors of patient-reported outcomes.

Injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) results in a threat to an active lifestyle and exposes the patient to risk of osteoarthritis. ACL reconstruction is typically chosen by individuals to allow a return to their previous work and sports activities. The results of primary ACL reconstruction have in general been good at restoring functional stability. Primary ACL reconstruction has a graft failure rate ranging from approximately 2%-8%. Consensus amongst surgeons and low-level evidence (retrospective case series) indicate a worse outcome following revision ACL reconstruction compared to primary reconstruction. The typical surgeon performs less than 10 revision ACL reconstructions per year. Thus, the ability of any single surgeon or small group of surgeons to accumulate enough cases to effectively analyze predictors for worse outcome is impossible.

Synvisc-One® (hylan G-F 20) and SYNVISC® (hylan G-F 20) are indicated for the treatment of pain in osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee in patients who have failed to respond adequately to conservative non-pharmacologic therapy and simple analgesics, e.g., acetaminophen.

It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and your friend calls, asking you to come for a hike. The invitation sounds tempting, but you pass, remembering how bad your knee felt after your last outing. Lately, your knee pain has become so troublesome that activities like jogging, cycling, or playing in a pick-up game of basketball just don't seem possible anymore.